[Amid this turmoil, the two sons born to Lao Ai and Empress Dowager Zhao likewise failed to escape the judgment of fate. By order of Ying Zheng, King of Qin, they were executed to uphold the dignity of the royal family and the purity of its bloodline.]
[Behind this rebellion, Chancellor Lü Buwei could not evade responsibility. Seizing the opportunity, Ying Zheng settled accounts with Lü Buwei, stripping him of his position as Chancellor and banishing him from Xianyang.]
[Thus, the young Ying Zheng firmly grasped power in his own hands and began amassing strength in preparation for the conquest of the other states.]
As the sky screen dispassionately revealed Lü Buwei’s fate, Li Si’s heart churned with mixed emotions.
The Chancellor he had once looked up to, the patron who had given him his first opportunity, had ultimately met such a wretched end.
This made him realize even more clearly that in the face of absolute monarchical power, any force that posed a threat to the imperial authority, no matter how illustrious it had once been, was doomed to destruction.
“Power is like a tiger; serving the ruler is like accompanying a tiger,” he silently repeated to himself, warning that he must always adhere to the duties of a subject while never losing the trust and reliance of His Majesty.
He stole a glance to observe the Emperor’s reaction.
Ying Zheng remained silent, but the icy aura of murderous intent around him seemed to have receded somewhat, transforming into a deeper, more commanding majesty.
Though the scars unveiled by the sky screen stung, they once again demonstrated an ironclad truth to all the court officials…
That anyone who dared to challenge the authority of the King of Qin, regardless of their noble status or complex background, would ultimately meet the same fate.
[In 230 BCE, to end the wars and achieve unification, allowing the people to live in peace and stability, the 30-year-old Ying Zheng, King of Qin, resolutely embarked on his ambitious campaign to unify the six states.]
[To this end, The First Emperor adopted the strategy of befriending distant states while attacking those nearby, to avoid making enemies on multiple fronts.]
[First, the Qin state selected Han, a geographically close and relatively weaker state, as its target. General Neishi Teng led the army to attack Han, successfully capturing the King of Han.]
[Later, the Yingchuan Commandery was established, marking the end of the Han state.]
The voice of the sky screen faded, like a final verdict echoing over the now-conquered land of Han.
In the newly established Yingchuan Commandery, the former Han capital of Xinzheng was enveloped in an indescribable silence.
The black banners of the Qin army fluttered atop the city walls, replacing the familiar Han flags. Qin soldiers in gleaming armor patrolled the streets, their footsteps uniform, shouting commands in an unfamiliar accent.
Though shops gradually reopened and markets slowly resumed, the people moving about had lost their former vitality, their faces now marked by caution and wariness.
Amid this silence, the hearts of countless Han people surged with unspoken turmoil.
An elderly man with graying hair and beard sat on his doorstep, his clouded eyes fixed on the unfamiliar black banner at the street corner.
He had witnessed the decline of Han, observed the extravagance and incompetence of its nobility, and he was not without grievances toward his homeland.
Yet, when the words “Han state has thus perished” finally reached his ears, a profound sorrow instantly seized his heart.
“Gone… it’s truly gone…” he murmured to himself, rubbing an old piece of pottery engraved with Han patterns—a relic from his youth, when Han still held a glimmer of vitality.
No matter how weak one’s homeland may be, it remains the root where one was born and raised. Now that the root has been severed, they have become drifting duckweed without anchor, transformed into people of Qin’s Yingchuan Commandery.
This shift in identity brought with it a profound, bone-deep melancholy and loss.
But what could he do?
Resist?
That would only lead to more bloodshed.
What’s done is done. Let it be.
[This victory not only eliminated the threat to Qin’s flank but also provided a stable base for subsequent campaigns.]
[Later, Wang Jian was appointed commander to invade Zhao, but encountered fierce resistance from Zhao’s renowned general Li Mu. The two sides fought bitterly for a long time without a clear victor.]
[With Qin’s forces unable to achieve a breakthrough after prolonged assault, Qin cleverly employed a stratagem of sowing discord, bribing Zhao’s treacherous minister Guo Kai to slander Li Mu before the King of Zhao, leading to the unjust execution of the loyal general.]
[Thus, Zhao destroyed its own Great Wall!]
“Tyrant! Shameless Qin! How dare you speak of righteousness?!”
“Tyrant Ying Zheng! Shameless Qin! How dare you speak of unification?” He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, his nails digging deep into his palms. Blood dripped between his fingers, yet he remained unaware.
“General Li Mu was so loyal and brave! He single-handedly defended our Zhao territory, making it impossible for Qin’s army to advance even an inch! When you couldn’t defeat him, you resorted to filthy tricks of discord, bribing scum like Guo Kai to frame a loyal subject!”
His words stirred the remaining former troops gathered around him, igniting their fury.
[Seizing the opportunity, Wang Jian launched a fierce assault, capturing Handan in one stroke. Zhao subsequently fell.]
Zhao had ultimately perished.
The banner bearing the character “Zhao,” once symbolizing glory and hardship, fell dejectedly from the walls of Handan, trampled into the mud by countless feet.
As the smoke of war cleared, Qin’s black flags spread like dark clouds, shrouding every corner of the land.
Unified decrees were promulgated: weights and measures were to be standardized, writing systems unified, and even axle lengths made identical.
Former people of Zhao had now become “Common People of Qin.”
Life seemed to go on, yet the sky above had changed color.
[However, the path to unification was not smooth. Various states resisted fiercely, and Crown Prince Dan of Yan, unwilling to await his doom, attempted to throw an egg against a stone.]
[This led to the historically famous classic scene—Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on the King of Qin~]
[Jing Ke, bearing the map of Yan’s Dukang region and the head of Fan Yuqi, sought audience with Ying Zheng under the pretense of presenting the map, intending to assassinate him. When the map was fully unrolled and the dagger revealed, the King of Qin narrowly avoided the assassination by circling around a pillar.The uploader has always been curious—exactly how many laps did the King of Qin run around that pillar?]
As the sky screen’s narration ended, the crowd fell into silence.
Ying Zheng: “…”
In the rear palace, Ying Qingyue chuckled unkindly—she too wanted to know, and even more, to witness the historic scene with her own eyes.
What a pity.
Meanwhile, someone else shared the same thought.
Far away in Pei County, Liu Ji imagined the scene of the King of Qin circling the pillar, baring his teeth in amusement, finding it genuinely entertaining.
Beneath the sky screen, many Common People found their focus diverted.
[This act thoroughly enraged Ying Zheng, strengthening his resolve for unification and accelerating its pace.]
[Subsequently, Wang Ben took up the campaign, employing a strategy of flooding Daliang, submerging the city in raging floods. Wei thus met its demise.]
Deep within a remote forest in the outskirts, a young man leaned against an old pine tree, gazing intently at the shifting images on the sky screen, his eyes burning with fierce anger.
“If my great Han had not fallen, why would I have been reduced to this?”
He was born into the ministerial family of the State of Han, with five generations of his ancestors serving the Han kings. Since childhood, he had been immersed in the atmosphere of court debates and state governance—
He should have followed in his forefathers’ footsteps and entered the Han court, using his knowledge to reform the bureaucracy, pacify the people, help Han stand firm amid the conflicts of the warring states, and protect the people of Yingchuan from the ravages of war.
But on the day the King of Qin’s iron cavalry crushed the Han capital Xinzheng, with the palace in flames and the royal family displaced, even he, a descendant of a ministerial house, could only flee to this wilderness to survive.
He abruptly drew his sword, its blade slicing through the air and leaving a deep gash in the tree trunk, as if carving his hatred for Ying Zheng into it.